What Raphael saw in the new wing was: nothing. The "construction" in the Technodrome apparently involved removing the floors of at least three levels, leaving a great black nothingness broken only by a few pipes and beams that still stretched across the abyss. Luckily, Shredder had managed to grab on to one of those.

Raphael went after him to try and pull him up, but they slipped. They grabbed frantically to whatever they could. Raphael ended up clinging to a pipe with both hands, with Shredder below him, his one good hand hanging on desperately to the turtle's ankle.

"Okay…okay…relax." Raphael's voice was shaking. "It's okay. It's fine, we're doing fine. Are you okay?"

Now was not the time for sarcasm, so Shredder resisted his impulse to shout, No, I'm dangling over a billion-foot drop, you idiot! He gritted his teeth. "Yes but I can't climb up with one hand."

"I know." Raphael closed his eyes and pretended there was not two hundred pounds of dead weight hanging on to his legs. He raised his knees to his chest, feeling something snap in his stomach. There goes the six-pack, he thought ruefully. I hope a five-pack doesn't look too stupid. He couldn't hold the position for long, so he let go of the pipe with one of his arms and reached down. "Takemyhand," he grunted. He grabbed Shredder's wrist.

Knowing that this was the best-case scenario – that two strong men gripping each other's forearms was one of the least futile ways to hang on for your life – did not make Shredder feel much better. He could do nothing but watch, with the sort of helplessness you usually only experience in nightmares, as Raphael struggled to hang on with one arm. The turtle's biceps were each about as big as his head, and Shredder didn't think willpower would be a problem, so it wasn't likely that Raphael would give out or give up. Still, that left…

"I'm slipping," Raphael gasped. "Shredder – I can't hold this for long. You'll have to climb. Ready?"

Ready for what? Climb like how? Shredder just nodded, remembering not to look down. Suddenly, Raphael curled his powerful arm, which lifted Shredder enough that if he used every bit of strength he possessed, he could lift his hips high enough to throw his legs up around the turtle's neck and shoulder. Even better, he thought. Now I'm upside down, too.

Immediately, Raphael let go of his hand in order to use both arms to re-grip the pipe. Shredder sat up on Raphael's shoulders and dragged himself up onto the pipe with his one good arm. Once he was safe, he lay down flat, hugging the pipe with both arms and legs.

He didn't want to move. "Hey," Raphael said after trying without success to pull himself up too. "A little help here?" Although terribly reluctant to let go, Shredder managed to offer the turtle a hand and help him scramble up. Once they were both safe, he went back to clinging desperately, while Raphael sat up, legs dangling casually over the abyss. "Ow. I think I pulled something. Hey – are you okay?"

Shredder had his cheek pressed against the pipe and his eyes squeezed shut. He was panting, as though he'd just run a mile or…

"Um. Are you afraid of heights?" Raphael asked suddenly.

Shredder nodded his head a fraction of an inch, past the point of caring if Raphael would make fun of him.

"Oh, lordy." Raphael took a deep breath. "Come on, tin-grin, you can't give out on me. You have to be tough for like twenty more seconds and then we're out of here."

Shredder still didn't open his eyes. "What do I have to do?" he whispered, too choked up to even talk properly.

"Creep forward. Can you creep forwards? It's easier if you sit up, like this." He swung one leg over so that he was straddling the pipe, not sure whether that would be comfortable for a human male and not really caring. "Come on. Up. Get up. Now."

Finally, Shredder convinced himself to release his death-grip so he could sit partway up and get moving. His armor – yes, he wore armor there, what kind of idiot wouldn't? – clanked against the metal as he inched forwards. He was doing okay until he made the mistake of looking down. Once that disaster had occurred, it was all he could do to hang on and stop himself from fainting.

Raphael found it really alarming, the way Shredder was swaying – almost like he had no idea what was going on and was about to pass out. So Raphael scooted right up behind him and settled an arm firmly around his waist, trying not to be jealous of how warm he was (lucky humans!) "Open your eyes," he ordered patiently. "Look, I've got you, I'm right behind you. You won't fall if you watch where you're going. Come on."Shredder finally took a deep breath and started moving. Raphael stayed glued to him, steadying him whenever he started wavering again. Finally, they reached a pipe that ran from the floor to the ceiling. "Follow me." Raphael let go of Shredder and slid down it like a fireman's pole. When he looked up and saw that Shredder had reverted back to lying flat and clinging to the horizontal pipe, he sighed. Was it really possible that Shredder couldn't-

Shredder could. (But barely.) He wound his legs properly around the vertical pipe, but had to stop and hyperventilate for a few minutes before he could force himself to let go and slide. He held his breath, panicking the whole way down. He landed in a heap and before he could even get up and re-orient himself, he passed out from lack of oxygen.

Furious that his hero had just fainted like a girl, Raphael shook him far harder than was necessary to wake him up. "Okay, that's just ridiculous. Wake up. Wake up, chicken. Hey!"

Shredder's eyes opened. "Where am I? What happened?"

"You fell from a very, very tall place," Raphael lied. "And I'm going to drop you from it again unless you pull yourself together and get going."

"I remember now." Shredder frowned. "If you breathe so much as a word-"

"Lips are sealed," Raphael assured him, "As long as I never hear the words foot and cut and cry come out of your mouth in the same sentence."

Shredder dismissed the thought with a wave. "Don't worry. But…speaking of cut… we're going to need more blood. Come over here."

Raphael looked alarmed. "Oh, no. Like definitely not." He scrambled backwards.

"You're acting like a child," Shredder complained. "Would you just hold still and-"

"No!" Shredder swiped at him and Raphael ducked, then drew his sais just in case the old can-head persisted.

The old can-head persisted. Raphael found himself defending himself in earnest, and managed to lock his weapon with Shredder's blades. "Stop it," he gasped, using every bit of strength he had to hold the blades away from his face as Shredder pressed down on him. "We're friends, remember? You can't cut people without permission!"

"I'll give you permission," Shredder growled, throwing him to the ground. Raphael jumped up and started to climb the pipe they had just slid down. From a safe distance of fifteen feet in the air, he looked over his shoulder hopefully. "Look, you do know I hate to beg you, but I-"

"I'll kill you!" Shredder raved, certain that he was being made fun of. How dare the turtle take refuge in a high place! He jerked off one of his shin guards and hurled it, but it only stuck in Raphael's shell and quivered there for a few minutes. Not quite so far gone that he would throw away any more armor, Shredder tried a new threat: "I'll build a fire under you."

"Can we talk about this?"

"There's nothing to talk about! You lunatic turtle – look! It doesn't even hurt!" Totally beside himself with fury, Shredder reached across his body with his right hand and slashed himself open from the shoulder to the wrist. "See?" Blood squirted all over the place.

Raphael stared down at him and tried not to notice the crazy light in his eyes. "You know, if you're trying to get me to feel safer about this, that's really not the way." He sighed. "But I guess if we have no choice we have no choice."

He jumped down and landed on his feet.

"That's better," Shredder growled. He took hold of Raphael's wrist to hold him still. "And I take back what I said about it not hurting." He raked his claws none too gently down Raphael's upper arm and smiled grimly when the turtle winced.

Raphael made a horrible sound and pulled away. "No!" he gasped. "Look at this – you're out of control!"

"Nonsense," Shredder said firmly. He was busy decorating himself liberally with mutant's blood. When he did take a step back to see what he'd done, though, he had to rethink things. "Okay…I'll handle this, all right? Just…just lie down and wait. The pizza-monsters won't bother you – I'm wearing more of your blood than you are." And he was right. He looked like the perpetrator of a chainsaw massacre and it didn't seem to bother him one bit. "Sit down."

Shredder had turned away as he spoke, so he didn't notice that Raphael's motions looked more like falling than sitting. He did notice that the turtle didn't look nearly as green as he ought to…but it could certainly be a trick of the light, couldn't it?

TBC. Still in California. Review for me! Pleeeease? There's a hit counter now, so I know you're there lurking. Gotcha!